hike

I was on top of a hiking trail when the world ended.

It was ending, but dammit, why did it end so beautifully?

Because it was, you know, beautiful. The asteroid, The Famous

Asteroid from Channel 7, talked and tweeted and posted about, was finally hitting and there was nothing we could do about, and maybe that's why, standing there with my foot propped up on a dusty rock, my water bottle dangling between my index and middle finger, mouth gaping, sweaty in my workout-gear, watching the world end, it was so, so beautiful.

The colors, for one.

The asteroid skidded across the sky, scorching everything in its path and leaving behind a big, scorching red-purple-blue-red-yellow bruise, and wow, it was beautiful - (I need to stop saying beautiful) and all I could do was think that I would die but at least the sky looked stunning while I was at it.

I had never thought skies could bleed.

I was wrong.

It bled, and it collapsed.

Because then the asteroid hit.

The heat rolled over me like a ´tsunami-wave.

Trees erupted below along the hillside like match-sticks.

The ground moaned and shook like it was in pain, like it was pleading with somebody, begging for something, anything, to make it stop.

Tiny specks of rubble dug into my skin, it felt like rain, only it was needles, not water.

I remember falling. Then the world didn't dissolve, nothing cinematically faded to black, and I felt no Angel of Death reaching for my hand. No, my vision just shattered. I went numb. It happened so fast, I didn't realize it was even happening.

All I know is, I woke up here, my mouth feeling like the inside of a chimney, rubbed raw, aching, my chest covered in dust, head spinning and wondering, why was I alive, why did I survive, why is there air flowing in and out of my lungs when I should be charred and burned and nameless, covered in the wreckage of what used to be the world. I opened my eyes. I reached for something to grab onto - and low and behold, there was a chunk of granite I could use to haul myself to my feet.

Heart pounding.

And now I'm here.

I'm alone. It's hitting me.

I've survived.

Me. Teenage, awkward, red-haired, chubby-armed me. That's how you know the universe does not care - anybody could have survived, the mayor or the president or, I don't know, a scientist. Instead it was me.

The odds...

I stare at my surroundings for a long time. Everything is gray. The air is not air anymore, it tastes like acid or sulfur, like it's mad at me that I dared to survive.

The forest is gone. The town below is gone.

Just like that.

Funny. All those roads and power-plants and elections and med labs and big ideas and even bigger plans we made, you know, like, humans, I mean, and now it's all just this blurry gray Something in the distance, a pile of ash, and I'm looking at it, trying to swallow mouthful after mouthful of angry air.

I want to cry.

I'm not the type of person who survives this kind of situation.

Heroes survive. Not random kids who climb up hiking trails at 7 p.m. at night, because they get teased for their lower belly fat and don't wanna show up to prom looking like a beluga whale in sheet.

Anyway, the town is gone, the forest, the roads, the hills, everything is flattened out. Like someone took a knife and sliced off the top layer. So I do what I would be doing if the world hadn't ended, if I was still on that hiking trail with my water bottle.

I start walking. As I do, snow starts falling.

Only, it's not snow, it's flakes of pale-gray ash, like little dust motes, drifting down from a sky that I can't see anymore, because its wrapped in dark clouds of...i don't know...some sort of dark matter. This isn't what they taught me in physics.

I guess it's just me now...I guess it's just me...two steps...keep walking...one, two, one, two...what do I do now?...one, two, one, two...there's no way anybody survived this, there is no way, I''m alone, I can feel it, I'm alone, there's nobody here, not my mom or my dad, or my brother or my dog or anything, I can feel it all closing in on me now, the ground is crunching beneath my feet, it feels soft, God knows what I just stepped on, don't think about it, keep walking, one, two, one, two, watch your step, that's a boulder, go left, I think that's neighbour Patty's dresser, just. Keep. Walking.

But I'm alone. I'm alone I'm alone I'm scared I'm alone I can't breathe why me why me WHY ME? -

"Susie?"

My heart stops. My ears are ringing.

"Susie!"

It can't be.

"Susie, it's me. Aaron. Holy...I thought I was the last person on earth."

A hand comes out of the fog, then a face, more specifically, the face of my biggest tormentor from middle school to senior high.

I know his face from the cafeteria - right before he smacked a tray of pudding into my face in 8th grade.

I know his face from chemistry class, when he compared me to the pig's heart we were dissecting, in 9th grade.

I know his face from The Spring Dance last year, when he stood me up in front of the whole school and my world ended (for the first time).

This was not someone I wanted to be alone in the world with.

And here he was, the Class Clown everyone adored.

He looked different without his minions glued to his side.

Grief didn't become him. His dark skin looked paler, covered in dust, his hair was unruly, sticking out at weird angles, his clothes were tattered and burned. He looked like he'd been to hell and back, which I figured wasn't far from the truth. The ringing in my ears faded slightly. I said nothing. Just surveyed him.

Somewhere in the depths of his face I made out two wide, black, glistening blotches: his eyes. He looked terrified. And somewhere in those eyes, I sensed relief. Hope.

"Susie," he repeated. His voice cracked.

And he hugged me, even though we were both sweaty and grimy and dirty, and even though our limbs were shaking, and holding up myself, let alone Aaron, was enough a challenge as it was.

But we stood there.

The ash-snow falling around us.

So this is what if feels like to be last two people on earth.

It feels like ash-snow and pain and terror and forgiveness.